Remember back in December when I was bitching about the record snowfall that paralyzed the entire city of Seattle?  Well, that is just a dim memory.  Today, western Washington is the hottest place in the country.

And, just like they did when faced with a solid week of snow, people here are freaking out.  There is a citywide run on AC units and fans.  People who spend 10 months out of the year bitching about the grey are now begging for rain.  One of my coworkers spent Saturday digging a ditch in her backyard so she could have a makeshift pool.  This weekend at the Ballard Seafood Festival I saw no fewer than 4 booths selling special equipment to keep cats and dogs from overheating.  Seriously people- there are dogs that live in Arizona and Nevada, and they’re fine.  Your dog will be fine during our one week of hot weather if you just use common sense.

But the very best example of Seattlites’ complete inability to deal with heat came today in the form of a formal warning from the King County Metro Transit System, in which the public was reminded of ways to deal with the heat, including “taking off your jacket.”

Personally, I’m fine with the heat.  I’m as happy as a pig in mud.  I would much rather have swampass on the bus ride home than be freezing my ass off for months on end. Go heatwave!

Somehow, beyond all of my dire predictions, we managed to get our stuff moved from one house to the next this weekend.  Well, most of it at least- there arevstill a few odds and ends that we need to clear out tomorrow before we dust the old place off and have the inspection of Friday.  We should have done that tonight, but Mike worked late and I had freaking amazing tapas at Olivar’s with our Dinner Club.  I still have hints of Manchego cheese, saffron and grilled peaches with licorice ice cream dancing through my mouth.  Yum.

It was a long weekend.  After spending Friday night and the first half of Saturday finishing up last-minute packing (thank you Rita!), we spent the afternoon and evening unpacking (thank you Brooke, Shaun and Barrie for your help with that!).  Then, around eight o clock, our new landlord knocked on our door and invited us to an impromptu dinner party she was hosting in the backyard.  We were covered in sweat and dust and tried to decline, but she wouldn’t take no for an answer, so we decided to pop outside for a bit and introduce ourselves.  Then we saw the spread- Oysters Rockafeller, cheese plates, shrimp, halibut and Veuve, and we decided stick around for a little bit.

Several of the other guests were former tenants of our current landlord.  You know how Mike and I have a knack for bringing interesting characters into our lives?  I think we’ve done it again.

The weirdest thing is, our new landlord reminds me of Mike’s mom.  Like, a lot- even down to her outfit that night.  If you’ve ever met Catherine, Mike’s mom, chances are you’ve seen her scurrying around in a similiar caftan-esque sundress while feeding a crowd.

After dinner, we collapsed, resting up to get some serious unpacking done the next day.  Which we did, for about half the day.  Then we decided to meet some friends for lunch at the Ballard Seafood Festival and went to the movies to see Food Inc.  If you haven’t seen this movie, or worse yet, if you haven’t heard about it, you need to get off your ass and go see it now.  It will really make you reconsider where your food comes from.  Obviously, it was preaching to the converted in my case, but even Mike agreed to stop hassling me about the cost of organic meat and produce.  Go see it, NOW.

Since then, we’ve mostly been slaving away and trying to get the place organized.  Instead of sharing the monotony of that adventure, I’ll share the rest of the pictures from our camping trip to Mt. Ranier.

Awww, doesn’t that make you feel better?

Sometimes, there are moments when you realize that you’re not perfect.  In fact, sometimes, you realize that you just plain suck.  Today was one of those days.

Today, at around noon, I realized that it was July 23rd.  Which means that my dad’s birthday was 10 full days ago.  Somehow, in the recent madness of moving, a constant stream of visitors and honestly, my own self-centeredness, I forgot to wish him a happy birthday.  And that sucks.

So dad, because I know you read this, I cannot tell you how sorry I am, and I really want to wish you a belated happy birthday.  I don’t have a good reason for forgetting- you raised me better than that, and I feel really bad.

You are an amazing person.  You have always been an incredible father, and even though it’s late, I want you to know that I love you and am wishing you an admittedly belated but nonetheless heartfelt happy birthday.

Thank you for being such an amazing dad.  Not only have you always been way too generous with me- whether it’s helping us with our wedding, buying our house, or just mailing me awesome glittery purses with cartoon characters on them- you gave me the best childhood ever.

Whether you were trying to stay positive about my lack of athletic ability…

or cheating a little to ensure that I could do the seemingly impossible…

or just ensuring that we were all impeccably dressed…

I love you.

And I always will.

I’m sorry.  Happy Birthday.  Keep an eye on the mail.

- Aubrey

Today has been filled with near misses.  I almost missed my bus this morning.  Then, when I was getting off the bus, an old woman almost through up on me.  At lunch, I almost left my ATM in the ATM (ok, fine, I actually did this, but remembered in time to run back and get the card before somebody took it or the machine ate it.)  On the way home, my bus almost hit a jaywalker.  We ran into a taco shop to get dinner tonight 10 minutes before it closed.  I’m not sure if that all means that today was a really good day or a really bad day.  Opinions?

This Saturday is our 1 year anniversary of moving to Seattle.  It’s also the day we have to move all of our crap to our new home.  If you’re counting, that means that this is the 8th time I’ve moved in 10 years.  I am really over moving.

Even though we’ve techincally had all month to move stuff, we really only started packing this past week, which means that every night this week I’ve spent my nights frantically putting said crap in boxes.

I am not good at putting crap in boxes.  I am extremely slow.  I am easily distracted and too emotionally connected to everything I own.  I get nervous putting things in boxes, because that means that I no longer have access to to those things- even though I know in my head that I’ll be able to start unpacking in just 3 days.

I also am really bad at getting rid of things that I don’t use anymore, or even things that don’t work.  I have an electric tea kettle that has been broken for 5 months that I haven’t thrown away because throwing it away means that it is actually dead and gone.  I really LIKED that electric tea kettle and I keep hoping that if I wait a little longer, I’ll plug it in one more time and it will magically start working again.

I know that none of that makes any logical sense, but these are the things that go through my head.  My head is a fascinating place.

Ugh.  This was much easier when Microsoft paid people to do this for us.

Last week was a looonnnnggg week.  This made it a lot better:

Yay camping!  We joined our friends Barrie, Dominic and Kevin for a weekend of camping at Mt. Ranier.  It was 48 blissful hours without internet or phone access, but with enough hiking, napping, not showering and especially bacon grease to make me feel completely relaxed.

Mt. Ranier is freaking gorgeous.

On Saturday, we woke up early (well, early for Mike, late for Barrie, just right for me) to hike in Paradise.

Paradise is like nowhere I’ve ever been- it’s an alpine meadow that has snow covering parts of it year round.  I kept thinking of references to The Magic Mountain.  And the Matterhorn.  (This is what goes through your head all day when you’re a literature nerd from Anaheim.)

We saw animals!

Soon the ground was covered with snow even though it was a warm and sunny 75 degree day.  So bizarre.

We got as far as Glacier Point- any higher and we would have needed special gear (fancy walking sticks, giant hiking boots and cross country skis).  We decided it was time for lunch.

Check out Mike’s awesome choice in footwear.  He really is a 45 year old white man.

There was so much snow!

Just as we were getting ready to head back down, I saw a man eating the BIGGEST SANDWICH I HAVE EVER SEEN.  I then proceded to pester Mike to take a picture of it.

It made me miss Derek.

Coming soon- our second hike of the day and WHY we had to hike so goddamned much.  (See “bacon grease” reference above.)

I SHOULD be packing right now.  I mean, considering the fact that we have to be out of here by the 31st and we haven’t even STARTED putting crap in boxes, AND we’re not going to be able to pack anything this weekend because we’ll be camping at Mt. Ranier, I should be packing.

But I’m not.  I’m telling you more about my weekend.

On Sunday morning Mike texted me to let me know that he, An and Jaime were leaving their haunted hotel in Oregon and would be back home in the afternoon.  Then he texted me again telling me that he wanted crab legs for dinner.

Amy and I decided to combine our culinary prowess and dedicated most of the day to welcoming the boys home with meat.  First stop, the Ballard Farmer’s Market:

Remember how Saturday was beautiful and sunny and warm all freaking day?  Sunday was a little different.  We left the market looking like this:

Awesome.

The next stop was Uwajimaya.  When you’re on the hunt for crab, it’s always a good idea to seek out an Asian grocery store.  And since Uwajimaya is the most badass Asian grocery store in the world, I felt like it was my responsibility to share it with Amy.

There was crab:

And that was just the beginning.  We also found stanky-ass dried squid, aka Mike’s mom’s favorite thing to snack on when she’s near me in a small, enclosed space:

You’re a liar if you say you’ve never felt like this:

GIANT POCKY!!!!:

And finally, the best freaking frozen yogurt in the universe, courtesy of Utopia.  Considering the fact that I like frozen yogurt more than anybody else I’ve ever met, my official endorsement means a lot.  I even prefer it to Yogurtland. I know that verges on heresy, but you’d understand if you’d had their black sesame flavor with mochi topping.

With plenty of Pocky, bellies full of yogurt and $70 of crab and korean bbq in hand, we left Uwajimaya and headed home to cook

The night’s menu was pretty fantastic-

• Broiled Crab Legs
• Korean Style short ribs
• Bouchon’s French Lentil and Feta Salad (courtesy of Anticiplate, one of the prettiest cooking blogs you’ll find)
• Green Salad with sauteed garlic shoots, Japanese Black Truffle Tomatoes (I am going to cry when the season ends for these amazing tomatoes) and homemade creamy Balsamic dressing
• Cherry dumplings a la mode (kind of a bastardized version of this recipe from Gourmet)

We had just about finished when the boys drove up.

After 5 days of riding, they weren’t only tired and hungry, they all smelled really bad to boot.  So we kept the food warm while they showered.  And then we ate.  I think the meal went over well.

That’s a picture of An and Jaime telling Mike they can’t BELIEVE how lucky he is to have the best wife ever.  Mike is looking a little bashful, so as not to appear boastful, but agreeing nonetheless.

Or it’s a picture of An talking about how hot some waitress they saw on their ride was.  You can choose to believe whichever version you like.

And that’s how the weekend ended.  The boys crashed out on the couch, Amy and I cleaned up, and we were all pretty much asleep before midnight.  But at least we were full.

Mike left on Tuesday morning for his testosterone-fueled west coast pilgrimige, meaning I after 4 solid weeks of visitors, I got the WHOLE freaking house to myself.

Well, for two days at least.

Being part of the Bach family is like being part of a very special, very time-consuming club.  Once you get in, you’re in for life.  Everywhere you turn, there are Bachs.  Even if you move out of state, Bachs sneak up and surprise you- they are literally around every corner.  So, after 58 hours of blissful solitude, I traded one Bach (Mike, the one I married) for another (Amy, his sister).

Thankfully, I really like Amy, so having her come up and visit while Mike was gone was actually a really good thing.  First of all, she is definitely the easiest guest we’ve had in a while.  Having been here before, she knows her way around Seattle and doesn’t need to be given the grand tour.  Instead, we get to do things that are far more awesome and don’t require much in the way of planning.

At this point I should note that all pictures in this post are stolen from Amy, because she is an awesome photographer and I am the world’s crappiest taker of pictures.  Thanks sis!

Amy flew in Thursday night.  I picked her up, we came home, I gave her a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, we talked for a bit, and then I was in bed before midnight because I am an old fogey and had to work the next day.  While I spent the day at work, Amy wandered around downtown and spent some quality time with the SAM.

Once I got home, we set out for dinner, with a short detour at the new apartment so I could water the plants.

Um, yeah, Amy photographs everything.  Thankfully, she also got some pictures of how awesome our new house is:

Don’t worry, we’ll have you over for some barbeques soon.  We just have to actually move first.

The original dinner plan revolved around eating something fabulous at END, the supposedly more subdued a la cart version of the multi-course behemoth that is Elemental at Gasworks.  They had a really cool sign in the entrance:

Unfortunately, that was the coolest thing about our experience at END because after hanging out at the door for 5 minutes we were kind of gruffly told that they were full until 9:30 that night and basically dismissed.  Um, yeah, thanks.  I am still curious about their food- I’ve heard great things and I loved the look of the place- but even if you are full for the night (which is weird because they specifically don’t take reservations)- can’t you at least say it nicely?  Boo.

Thankfully, we were only half a mile from another place I’ve been dying to try, Cantinetta.  So we went there.  When we put our name in with the host, he apologized for their having a 20 minute wait and pointed us toward the bar, where we enjoyed some much-needed Prosecco.  And dinner was fabulous.

The gnocchi with creme fresh and garlic shoots made my heart sing.  So freaking delicious.  Roasty little pillows of yum.

Salmon.  With asparagus.  On some green puree of deliciousness.  Mmmmm.

We also had an appetizer of pancetta wrapped dates, which we failed to photograph mostly because we scarfed them down in mere seconds.  But I mean, they were pancetta wrapped dates- sweet and salty and just about perfect.

We decided to prep for dessert by walking a mile to Molly Moon’s, where Amy learned that sometimes it is worth it to wait in line for 30 minutes for ice cream, like these people:

The next day we switched gears a bit and picked up my friend Barrie to get in some appreciation for the outdoors via a 6 mile hike to Snow Lake.  Nothing quite says “July in Washington” like sliding around in the snow in 85 degree weather wearing shorts.

Post-hike, we napped like champions and then headed out to Ballard to check out their monthly Art Walk, where we sipped on free wine (yay) in galleries, clothing boutiques and even in one speaker store.  Weird, but good and free.  Plus, we got to take pictures like this:

We finished off the night with some sushi at Moshi Moshi, which not only features a great selection of sushi that is NOT drowned in nasty mayonnaise-based sauces, but also has a really pretty lit-up cherry tree on top of the bar:

I am a fan of all things sparkly and this definitely caught my attention.

On the way home, we had to make one final stop at 7-11 so Amy could properly celebrate the fact that it was Free Slurpee Day:

Coming soon: getting rained on, discovering giant Pocky and celebrating the boys’ return with crab.

Did I mention that the four days my family spent with us were jam-packed?  This was inevitable, really, due to two combining factors- a) the fact that my dad and I are both chronic fidgeters and neither of us can ever stand still, and b) our house is way too small for 5 people to just chill out for very long.  So while the weekend was a bit exhausted, at least we got a lot of pictures out of it.

Saturday was July 4th.  Maybe it’s a result of having grown up so close to Disneyland that their nightly fireworks shows were not only visible from our front yard but annoyingly loud when we were trying to watch TV, but nobody in my family gets particularly excited by the idea of fireworks.  And Mike only likes fireworks when he’s the one lighting them, so instead of braving the crowds at GasWorks park, we decided to take a day trip to Whidbey Island instead.

Whidbey Island is a one hour drive and a 20 minute ferry ride from Seattle.  This really isn’t a long trip, but it felt a little long for me because I got to sit in the back seat the entire time, along with my mom and brother.  This was made extra uncomfortable by the fact that both of our cars only seat 4 people, so we made a makeshift middle seat in the back for my mom, who spent the whole trip sitting on a pillow on the center panel.

At least it made her taller than Michael and I for the first time in forever.

Our first stop on the island was for lunch in Coupeville, where I ate a gigantic bowl of mussels and we did some wandering.

We even made our way to the Coupeville Farmer’s Market, which I had high hopes for.  Quaint island town in Washington State in July?  I expected to see berries and cherries galore.  Unfortunately, even I’ll admit it was more like a flea market in the middle of somebody’s poorly maintained backyard than an actual farmer’s market.  The boys were not impressed:

Sans produce, we piled back into the car and made our way to Deception Pass.

Deception Pass is beautiful.  Not much else needs to be said.

We explored some of the shorter trails below the bridge.

Mike, my mom and I headed down to the beach below:

The water was cold:

By about 4:00 we were ready to head home.  It had been a long day:

The start of many motorbike adventures to come officially begins – July 8th at 6AM. Me and my fellow journey men (An and Jaime) will be setting off on an adventure from Southern California to Seattle Washington in search of the best roads on left coast. The ride will take us through some of the most beautiful landmarks this side of California, Oregon and Washington including, the the depths of the Redwood forest, the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco, the sand dunes of Pismo Beach and the scenic coast line of Oregon. It’s amazing how little we’ve seen of our own backyard.

We’ll be riding wonderful roads such as this.

I’ll be trying my best to document the trip for everyone to enjoy and will try to actively post live updates here and on our tumblr journal when I can. (Mostly to let Aubrey know we are alive and well). In the mean time you can see our tenative route and virtually make the drive using Google Maps.

Follow along with on our Tumblr journal
Live photo updates available on our Flickr channel

I’d also like to thank Jaime for making this ride a reality by lending a hand and solving my bike situation.  Though I won’t be joining the Ducati family of riders per my originl plan, a 2006 Yamaha FZ6 will make do. Not quite as sexy, but it’ll get the job done. Onwards we go!

Live, Love, Ride – Michael

Is that a giant insulated 96 oz Diet Coke in front of our house?  Well, that can only mean one thing- my parents are in town!

After living in Seattle for almost a full year, my family FINALLY made it up here for a visit!  Poor Mike had to suffer through 3 full days of all of us squished inside our tiny little house and almost as much time squished inside our cars- both of which, we discovered once we packed into either one, only comfortably seat 4 people.

So what did we do to keep the folks entertained?  Typical stuff really.  Some good eats, some tourist attractions, a long-ass drive to see a bridge, a trip to the beach (because my parents, who live in California, definitely don’t get to see the beach often enough) and a secret wedding.

For dinner Thursday night, we decided to eat at Pike Brewery in the market.  While we were figuring out how to get down there, I jokingly said that we could all take the bus downtown.  My mom was instantly thrilled by the idea of riding a bus for the first time in 35 years and thought it would be “fun.”

Yeah, that’s my mom video taping her bus ride.  At this point I was starting to regret the fact that we ever introduced her to the wonder that is the flip cam.

And then she stood up to get a better shot of one of us.  It was at this point that I instantly turned into a 14 year old again and kind of wanted to die.

My favorite thing about the Pike Brewery are their freaking amazing dinner rolls, which are made from spent grain used in beer making.  (It would have been awesome if I took a picture of said dinner rolls, but I was too hungry and ate them before I thought of that.)  The rolls are 50% of the reason I picked this place for dinner.  The other 50% was because I knew they didn’t serve Michelob Ultra Light, and I am on a personal crusade to expand my mom’s palate.  She was forced to drink their house-made light beer, Naughty Nelly, which she bravely chugged down, even if she thought it was a little too strong.  Evidently the change in flavor inspired her to branch out her culinary choices as well, and she ordered a Ceasar Salad with Dungeness Crab instead of her usual Ceasar Salad with Grilled Chicken.  I felt like I was watching my kid take their first step.

The next day we hit the market.  My mom got to see some fish get thrown and my dad got to stare at people.  I think they were both happy.

I was especially excited when I found what is obviously a secret room in the market where they keep rabid plastic pigs.

I was SO excited that I had to call somebody about it.

Ok, not really, I think I was on the phone with our new landlord.  But it would make a better story.

After lunch at the market (Three Sisters Bakery and Pike Place Chowder- yum!) my parents came with us to pick up the keys to our new place!  Then they took the requisite prom-style photos of us in front of it.

Finally, we capped off the day by dropping my family off at the Locks so that Mike and I could attend the secret kind-of elopement of one of my knitting friends.  Because it was a super small ceremony, she asked that nobody post public photos of the bridge and groom, but these detail shots (and a few of some guests) are too cute to not post.  I can’t wait until I get permission to post pics of the bridge and groom.

(I am wildly flapping my arms because I’m in the midst of defending my skirt, which our friend Shaun- the bizarrely tall person in the picture- likened to a “potato sack.”  I tried to explain to him that it was “deconstructed,” but Shaun is obviously a little slow when it comes to fashion and likes to chide me for wearing “silly outfits.”  It’s a good thing that I love his wife, Brooke, and his barbeque, because otherwise we’d have a problem.  Anyway, back to adorable wedding details:)

At the conclusion of the ceremony, Brooke noticed that a strange woman was hiding in the bushes video taping the entire thing.  When she alerted the group, I turned back to realize that it was my mom, who had obviously had enough of looking for salmon, and had not only found the secret wedding, but decided to capture it on video with her damn flip cam.  Priceless.

More recap of the rest of the trip, which included a mini-roadtrip, a really tall bridge, the overconsumption of cherries and a beach pilgrimage coming soon.